Plate Nº 37 · recorded November 4, 2026
Neuroscience & MindReported finding
Permanent Daylight Saving Time Could Mean 2 Billion Dark School Commutes
A Current Biology study finds permanent daylight saving time would add at least 2 billion dark school commutes, with fatal pedestrian crashes twice as likely in dark mornings.
By Priya Raman4 min read781 words
In brief
- Permanent DST would create at least 2 billion additional before-sunrise school commutes nationwide, per a study published October 29, 2026 in Current Biology.
- Fatal crashes involving school-aged pedestrians are roughly twice as likely in dark mornings as after sunrise.
- Georgia would see about 71 million additional dark trips; Washington state nearly 35 million.
- Mississippi and Alabama would jump from roughly 2 million dark trips each to more than 20 million per state.
- Nineteen states have approved permanent DST measures; the federal bill has passed the House but stalled in the Senate.
At least 2 billion additional school commutes would take place in darkness if the United States adopted permanent daylight saving time, according to a study published October 29 in the journal Current Biology. The research team, led by scientists at the University of Washington, also found that fatal crashes involving school-aged pedestrians occur roughly twice as often during dark mornings as after sunrise.
The finding lands at a moment when the idea has real political momentum. This past summer, the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation that would eliminate the annual return to standard time in the fall. Nineteen states, including Washington, have already approved measures supporting the change, which would take effect if the federal bill becomes law. The bill remains stalled in the Senate, where school start times have emerged as a major concern.
What would change for children?
Permanent daylight saving time would push sunrise an hour later during the winter months, leaving mornings darker from November through March. To measure what this would mean for students, the researchers examined 14 of the 19 states that have approved permanent daylight saving measures. They combined school enrollment figures, individual school start times, and geographic coordinates to count how often students would travel before sunrise.
The numbers are substantial:
- Washington state alone would see nearly 35 million additional dark school commutes.
- Georgia would record the largest increase, roughly 71 million additional dark trips.
- Nationally, the total would reach at least 2 billion more trips to school before sunrise than under the current system of changing clocks twice a year.
Where would the impact fall hardest?
Schools near the western boundaries of time zones would be hit particularly hard, because sunrise already arrives late there. The study names Forks, Washington, as an example. Districts that start classes early would also face large increases.
Mississippi and Alabama offer the sharpest illustration. Schools in both states begin, on average, before 8 a.m. Under the current system, each state logs about 2 million school trips in darkness. With permanent daylight saving time, that figure would climb to more than 20 million trips per state.
"Some districts probably never experience a dark commute under the current system, and, if this passes, suddenly they will wake up to this new reality that their kids are going to school in the dark," said lead author Guadalupe Rodríguez Ferrante, a postdoctoral researcher in biology at the University of Washington. She noted that the team used the actual start time listed for each school, and that many schools offer breakfast before class, meaning children could arrive even earlier.
Why does morning light matter?
Beyond traffic safety, darker mornings could disrupt children's circadian clock, the internal timing system that regulates sleep, mood, and appetite. Bright light early in the day helps synchronize that clock. Children, bound to fixed school schedules, would lose a valuable window of daylight at the moment their bodies need it.
"When we send kids to school in the dark, we are depriving them from an opportunity to get that morning daylight," Rodríguez Ferrante said.
The findings also complicate efforts to delay high school start times for teenagers, whose biological clocks naturally run later. Later school schedules help adolescents sleep, but the researchers argue that permanently shifting clocks forward could undermine those gains by making morning sunlight less accessible.
Is 2 billion an undercount?
Probably, the researchers say. Their detailed calculations covered 14 states; for the nationwide estimate, they assumed students generally leave home around 8 a.m. Because many children travel earlier, the projected figure likely falls short of reality.
"That's pretty late, so our calculation is likely an underestimation of the real number," Rodríguez Ferrante said.
Senior author Horacio de la Iglesia, a professor of biology at the University of Washington, criticized the framing of the legislation itself. "It's called the 'Sunshine Protection Act' because you get an extra hour of light at the end of the day. But you will take that hour from the morning. You could call it the Sunshine Destruction Act," he said. "Nobody wants their kids to go to school in the dark."
One proposed fix, starting school later, drew his skepticism. Delaying school would push work schedules later as well, he argued, and everyone would simply realign to solar time. "That, by definition, is Standard Time," de la Iglesia said.
The study's additional authors include high school student Daniel Zhang and University of Washington undergraduates Nirekh Dasika, Alicia Nam, Jessie Lu, Navneet Tumber, Elena Kully-Rivera, Viridian Klei, and Micaela E. Romero.
The tradeoff, in the end, is simple: brighter winter evenings would come at the cost of darker mornings for children.
via congress.gov (Original)
More from Priya Raman
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Senior reporter covering people, launches and day-to-day practice in general science news at SciBeat.
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